Rush's admitted, paroled-for crime was medical prescription fraud. And now he gets caught, blue-handed, in prescription fraud again, only a couple months after his deal with the prosecutor. That ain't right. It ain't murder, but it ain't chopped liver, neither.

You can see these creepy old men with their illiterate protest signs at every Planned Parenthood location, every day. This always has been an issue for women and girls. These old dudes do not even understand it.

Michelle Goldberg, you wrote a great little piece here, but I believe we need to stop listening to these crazy old men, stop quoting them, and seek out women and girls who can articulate the issue properly.

Mel was drunk. Do not worry so much about him. BUT:

Our 21st century American fundamentalist Christians really do support Israel, and they know a good deal about Jewish history, and they say they like Jews...

But most of them do not even know any Jews. Outside of a few cities on the coasts and in the upper Midwest, the Christianists never even have opportunities to meet Jews. So their "support" is theoretical and abstract.

Remember that these Christianists all come from a long-standing anti-semetic tradition. Nowadays, they say they like Jews, but they also say they like angels. Please keep in mind that they never actually have met either Jews or angels.

"Anyone else see the striking resemblance between Mel and Saddam (post-Enduring freedom, but pre-trial)?"

Yes! I was thinking he looks like the Unabomber. Or sort of Hassidic, even. Oy!

If your detractors could hear you read this piece in a Lake Wobegone accent, they MIGHT understand it better. It would have a Confederate-flag-in-Detroit feel about it. But, in writing, without the accent and the irony, the detractors think it is just standard redneck humor.

Garrison Keillor, you are the dean of a very small school of funny Northerners. Please do not jump on the southern humor bandwagon. We have thousands of "funny" drawling hushpuppies already. And that southern humor is too easy. It is beneath you.

Come home, Garrison! We know you are strong, good looking and above average.

Ex-Marines and patriotic fundamentalists probably will listen to Mike Cronin, because he has their kind of credentials. These people never listen to us, the sort who post on Salon.

Mr. Cronin is a convert. He can be a force like the Apostle Paul, who originally was a Pharisee, who was Christianity's most powerful advocate, after he converted from being the Christians' most zealous persecutor.

Responding mostly to TinyBubbles:

I am from Michigan, which, like G.K.'s Minnesota, is in the North. You are from Boston, which is NOT in the North. Boston is in the East. You mention Ohio. The northern part of Ohio in in the North, and the southeastern part of Ohio is in the South.

On talkiness/friendliness: In my experience, Detroiters (North) talk to each other on the street and on the bus, but Grand Rapidians (also North) do not. I do not know what Twin Citizens (North) do. Talkiness and looking people in the eyes are subtle phenomena, not subject to simple North/South/East/West analysis.

Can Roger buy himself out of his Houston contract? If so, maybe he can hire himself out one game at a time, later this season.

For example, the next time the Tigers and White Sox play each other, he could let those two teams bid against each other. And he could start a game for the higher bidder. He could go wherever the race is tightest. If Oakland and L.A. are neck-and-neck, and the Yanks and Bosox are close going into the last week of the season, he might get four teams bidding against each other.

And maybe he could start a game for one team, and then get hired to go to the bullpen for the opposing team for the rest of the series... He might even sell himself an inning at a time, and switch sides during a game! That's free enterprise! That's what America is all about!

This thread is about torture. Torture is what the Nazis did. Torture is why we used to be better than the Nazis.

Please forget Swift Boat. Swift Boat has nothing to do with torture. Please be outraged over American Torturers including G.W. Bush, D. Cheney, and D. Rumsfeld.

People will say that Cheney and W. Bush are just too idealistic, that they have been biting off more than we can chew, and so on...

But, what indeed are they aiming at? Very soon, they will need to re-instate the military draft if they stay on this course.

Is there any real chance that they really believe they are in the biblical Apocalypse? Do they believe that Armageddon and Jesus are coming anyway, so they may as well charge ahead? Do they think they are doing God's work???

They have not denied it. How else to explain?

Mel Gibson seems to have posted here under the clever nickname of "Anonymous."

In this article, and in the posts here, we have two main avenues of thought:

1. The people in Washington have no real plan, and are cluelessly arrogant, OR,

2. The people in Washington have an elaborate plan involving even such things as Caspian oil and Chinese development.

Let us go with option number two, for now, for the sake of my question:

If the guys in Washington have a plan, they have not told us about it. Would it be a bad strategy for them to lay their cards on the table, and "educate" us? Why do they not tell us what they have in mind? The things they keep saying are preposterous and shallow, and nobody who counts believes them.

So why not let us in on their vision thing?